When the Marx Brothers formed a production company in 1933, they called it International Amalgamated Consolidated Affiliated World Wide Film Productions Company Incorporated, of North Dakota. The joke, of course, was that Hollywood had been consolidating since roughly the invention of the sprocket.
David Ellison now faces a version of the same problem, minus the comedic intent. Having completed his $111 billion acquisition of what used to be two separate entertainment conglomerates — each with its own century of history, library of classics, and water tower — Mr. Ellison must decide what to call the thing. The working titles circulating through the trade press, WarnerMount and ParaBros, have the appeal of license plates issued to cars with too many previous owners.
The challenge is not merely aesthetic. A name signals intention, and Mr. Ellison has several audiences to satisfy simultaneously: the Wall Street analysts who want to hear about synergies and streaming subscribers, the California attorney general who just extracted a consent decree, and the nostalgists who remember when these studios made pictures instead of content. (The Paramount script typeface has been on the front gate since 1920, which is longer than most religions.)
There are precedents, none of them entirely encouraging. When AT&T swallowed Time Warner in 2018, the Warner name vanished entirely — a tell, in retrospect, about how much the telecom cared about the movie business. When David Zaslav took over, he insisted on calling the merged company Warner Bros. Discovery, which made it sound as if the cable channel that aired "Deadliest Catch" were a full partner in the enterprise that made "Casablanca."
Mr. Ellison has already offered a hint. The Paramount water tower now bears the familiar mountain and script, with a modest disclaimer underneath: "A Skydance Corporation." This suggests a holding-company approach — the Paramount and Warner Bros. names preserved for theatrical releases and prestige television, while Skydance sits above it all like a parent who lets the children keep their surnames after the adoption.
Whether the industry will find this arrangement satisfying is another matter. Skydance, founded in 2006 with family money and a taste for expensive franchise pictures, lacks the historical resonance of the names it has collected. Then again, Gulf and Western Industries lacked resonance too, and it owned Paramount for twenty-three years.
The Marx Brothers, at least, knew they were kidding.
Original story published in The Hollywood Reporter: "What Will David Ellison Name His Mega Hollywood Studio?"